So I’ve been doing a fair amount of baking lately… ok, maybe fair isn’t quite accurate. I’ve been doing a somewhat excessive amount of baking lately, at least compared to the rate of what normally goes in and out of my oven. School starts next Monday and I think I’m feeling my freedom slipping away. Soon I’ll have no time to bake, or blog, or breath. I’ll merely be struggling every day to absorb more Italian (which has definitely slipped my mind of late) and read all the other 15 books I’ve been assigned this term. **sigh**

Anyway, while we were visiting family in WI I happened to see a recipe in a magazine for parsnip bread, my interest was piqued. Of course it wasn’t vegan, but never mind that. I awoke one morning shortly after we returned and decided to take a go at my own version, which included pumpkin and cranberries, but a sudden whim caused me to be desirous of a gluten-free version. So, I hopped on over to the Gluten-Free Goddess to borrow a flour concoction that would hopefully do for the autumn muffins dancing around in my head. I think they turned out quite well. They’re dark because of the buckwheat but one should not judge a muffin by its cover. I didn’t really follow her recipe to a T, or really much at all, but if you would like to know what I did holler at me and I’ll relay it to you. I’d type it out now but I’m feeling a bit lazy.

On my next endeavor I made these chocolate chip cookies, which I thought were quite superb even in spite of their cake-like consistency, which was entirely my fault. In my ever going battle to make bad things not so bad for you I shucked half the oil and added applesauce and subbed in some wheat flour, which is likely the reason for their fluffy demeanor.

I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, which turned out much better then their cakey predecessor (I didn’t use the applesauce). The recipe for these came out of none other than one of the most superb cookbooks of all time, ok maybe not all time but at least in my time – Veganomicon. Isa and Terry are actually at it again by the way. Soon your cookie jar will be invaded by what I’m entirely positive will be some splendifferous cookies.

Recently I became the owner of an ice cream maker (I ❤ Craigslist)!!! My life is now complete… My first batch of ice cream was chocolate, with some strawberries mixed in towards the end. I kind of wanted to make something vanilla-ie but since I bought chocolate soy milk on a whim I had to figure out something with which I could do with it. I think it turned out very well, I just have 2 pints of it to eat now. The recipe also came out of Veganomicon but if you google around you’re sure to finds tons of free vegan ice cream recipes. This one was comprised of coconut milk, soy milk, sugar, tofu, etc. If for some reason you aren’t satisfied with the free recipes there’s quite a few ice cream cookbooks running amuck out there, buy one.

Though I’m told the following item resembles a cow pattie I’m still quite proud of it. I guess a parent can’t tell when their child is ugly… same goes for cooking. The oatmeal cookie and the chocolate ice cream happened to come to fruition on the same day, so I thought it best to combine them. If you’ve never compiled an ice cream sandwich before it’s actually a bit harder then you would imagine to make it look “pretty.” My version obviously needs a makeover judging from the supposed “cow pattie” resemblance. Practice makes perfect I guess.

And last, but by no means least, I made cinnamon rolls last night (because I thought I needed to cram one last sweet and fattening goodie into my less than accommodating fridge). So how do vegan cinnamon rolls taste anyway? Freaking awesome! These were so damn good. Non-vegans would never have an inkling of suspicion that these were of the animal friendly variety. Novel Eats also has a chocolate version, which I didn’t make but judging by how delicious the cinnamon ones were they are most definitely heavenly. I’m thinking next of making them with a strawberry compote and chocolate shavings. Oh, note to self: let rolls cool prior to applying icing.

Alrighty then. As you can see, I have a fair amount of sugary calories to burn off, I must to the pavement (which means running in case that was in some way unclear). Tootles!